Nelms declares candidacy for 158th District seat

01/30/2018 11:26AM
● By Richard Gaw

By Richard L. Gaw

Staff Writer

Before nearly 100 former students and
players, friends and local Democratic leaders, Rick Nelms, a former
teacher and basketball coach, officially announced his candidacy for
Pa. State Representative for the 158th District, at the Kennett
Brewing Company on Jan. 27.

He will be running against Republican
Eric Roe, who is in his first term as the representative for the
District, in an election that will be held in November. The 158th
District is made up of the municipalities and townships of Avondale,
East Bradford, East Marlborough, London Britain, New Garden, Newlin,
West Bradford and West Marlborough, as well as portions of West
Goshen.

A graduate of West Chester University
and Villanova University, Nelms taught Economics, American History
and American Government at Jenkintown, Kennett and Coatesville high
schools for 33 years, and was also a basketball coach for several
years.

The chief talking points of Nelms'
campaign focus on environmental protection; state legislature,
pension and tax system reform; the promotion of strong public schools
and small businesses; and the promotion of opioid addiction
prevention.

His campaign will also focus on
creating stepped-up measures intended to protect seniors, veterans
and “Dreamers,” those young people currently protected under
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an American
immigration policy was established by the Obama administration in
June 2012 aimed at allowing some individuals who entered the country
as minors and remained illegally, to receive a renewable two-year
period of deferred action from deportation. The policy was rescinded
by the Trump administration in September 2017.

Describing himself as a political
outsider with real-life experience, Nelms said that if he is elected,
he will not “toe the party line.” A committee member for
Indivisible Kennett Square, he said he was influenced to run after
hearing the divisive rhetoric and tone of contemporary politics.

“I don't like the way our nation is
going,” Nelms said. “There is a lot of bigotry and rhetoric and
hatred in certain elements of our society. I'm a committee member for
Indivisible Kennett Square, and the head of the committee sent out a
memo asking if anyone was going to run for the office, so I'm running
for the office.

“I'm running for State Representative
because we need someone in the Pennsylvania State Legislature who
will advocate for our residents, not special interests,” Nelms
wrote on his website. “I believe in fiscal sanity and social
justice. I'm not a politician, and I don't intend to become a career
politician.”

Nelms wrote that if elected, he will
not serve more than two two-year terms in the House.

“I've had some decent contributions
from moderate Republicans, and I've had a supervisor pull me aside
and tell me that if I get elected to Harrisburg, he thinks I can get
things done,” he said. “If I am elected, I'm not going to toe the
party line. I have brought people together to achieve a common goal,
before.”